I seem to recall something along the lines of large bombers running valves as they were less prone to effects of EMP around nuclear blasts. Not sure if this perhaps something similar?
The majority of the on-board avionics were based on vacuum-tube technology, not solid-state electronics. Although they represented aging technology, vacuum tubes were more tolerant of temperature extremes, thereby removing the need for environmental controls in the avionics bays. With the use of vacuum tubes, the MiG-25P's original Smerch-A (Tornado, NATO reporting name "Foxfire") radar had enormous power – about 600 kilowatts. As with most Soviet aircraft, the MiG-25 was designed to be as robust as possible. The use of vacuum tubes also made the aircraft's systems resistant to an electromagnetic pulse, for example after a nuclear blast
Well, at least in that case it seems like a conscious design decision. Not sure how much of the state of the art design and tech was driven by "I like the colour" or "the supplier is in my state".
The Soviet design bureaus certainly had their irrationalities. They behaved like big, vertically-integrated companies, and preferred 'their' stuff over the other design bureaus' stuff.
Soviet gear was robust because robustness and repairability was priorities as a design criterion. It's not an automatic product of how they doled out work, or of their defense industry generally.
In one of the documentaries about the Vulcan raid on the Falklands (1982), one of the pilots interviewed remarked that somebody flying Avro Lancasters in WWII would have felt right at home in the cockpit of the Avro Vulcan. E.g. the navigator used mechanical clocks to keep track of when to turn, and so on.
Not sure if this was a conscious decision wrt EMP, or was it just that they were in a hurry to develop a jet bomber for delivering nukes and they reused existing stuff as much as possible.
Not in the least surprising. The Vulcan prototype, the 707, first flew in 1949. They even had a mount for the old Lancaster bomb sight - though that was mostly used for a camera.
Flight engineer and radar operator in the seats behind would have got the fancy new (for the early 50s) electronic things.
The Lancaster was loaded with the technology of the time by the end up the war e.g. they had radar navigation, radio navigation, (when it worked) a 'lock' detector for German night fighter radar
The majority of the on-board avionics were based on vacuum-tube technology, not solid-state electronics. Although they represented aging technology, vacuum tubes were more tolerant of temperature extremes, thereby removing the need for environmental controls in the avionics bays. With the use of vacuum tubes, the MiG-25P's original Smerch-A (Tornado, NATO reporting name "Foxfire") radar had enormous power – about 600 kilowatts. As with most Soviet aircraft, the MiG-25 was designed to be as robust as possible. The use of vacuum tubes also made the aircraft's systems resistant to an electromagnetic pulse, for example after a nuclear blast